Monday, August 11, 2014

Smart Phone, Dumb Person

"I'm here for the medication my doctor transferred to you," she said, engrossed in a conversation on her cell phone.

I give her a puzzled look. She's a young lady about 18 years old. I get her name and determine that what happened is that her doctor CALLED IN a new prescription for her. For those of you playing the home game, TRANSFER is when we get a prescription record from another pharmacy. They deactivate any refills remaining and it then "exists" at our pharmacy. Hence the puzzlement on my part. Doctors don't transfer prescriptions.

Once we had that situation figured out, I get her current information. She's from out of state, visiting here in Snootyville and needs a refill on her oh-so-femininely-named birth control. I get it all in the computer and then say, "insurance?"

"Insurance. Yes, I have insurance."

"Ok, may I see your card?"

"I don't have it with me," she says, rolling her eyes. "Didn't the doctor give it to you when he did the TRANSFER?"

There's that word again. So much for having that figured out.

"No, when a doctor CALLS IN a new prescription, they don't give us that information. Besides, they would have your medical information. I need your pharmacy insurance information."

"I don't have it."

So now she's traveling out of state WITHOUT her medication and her insurance information. Great. Upon further questioning, I determine she has no idea who carries her prescription insurance, there's no one to call for help, and she's pretty much clueless about pharmacy terminology.

I tell her it is only $20 and if she can come back with her correct info within nine days, we can reprocess and get her a refund.

So I'm checking her out on the register. She slides a debit card, not paying any attention to the point of sale device which is waiting for a club card. I reach over, press the debit button, and ask her to slide the card again. I do this 1,000 times every day.

It asks for her PIN. She looks at me, bewildered.

"I don't know my PIN."

At this point it occurred to me that we should have special pamphlets at the register for just these special occasions. The title of the brochure should be, "Why YOU shouldn't Vote."

Is it just me, or have you also noticed how as cell phones get "smarter," people are getting dumber and dumber?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, for the love of God, just give her the birth control for free.

You'd be doing the world a favor by preventing her from reproducing.

Anonymous said...

If you're feeling generous and helpful, which I would not have been, you could have called her home pharmacy for the insurance info. Then just have her slide the card as credit. Problems solved. For you anyways, she is still in a buttload more trouble

Anonymous said...

My brochure is entitled "Why YOU Shouldn't Reproduce"; it would come with a free coupon for either condoms or birth control pills.

Don said...

I think it's her parents that need the birth control!